Constructed in 1959, the Federal Building in Fort Dodge was once home to a multitude of government services ranging from the Social Security Administration to the Mine Safety and Health Administration to the local U.S. Post Office. As chronicled in a 2009 article in the Fort Dodge Messenger, by the late 1990s the fourth floor was empty and third floor courtroom was rarely used.
The Post Office moved from the location in February 2007, rendering the former Federal Building empty. The building has changed hands twice in the last seven years, with each buyer hoping to revive the once-bustling buildings. The most recent plan to lease a first-floor coffee shop and multiple small business offices has fizzled.
The community of Beacon feels like a suburb to Oskaloosa, the county seat of Mahaska County in southeast Iowa. Along with nearby University Park, it’s one of two incorporated cities located just outside of the Oskaloosa city limits. Beacon’s a mostly residential town, save a construction business, Methodist Church, and the pictured Post Office. Postal service was established in Beacon in 1866; the location was known as Givin and Oskaloosa Junction before the Beacon name was established in April 1867.
The community of Kelley has gained statewide attention from its downtown phone booth, one of the last working phone booths remaining in the state of Iowa. It was featured in theDes Moines Register in May this year; in August, popular radio hosts Van and Bonnie broadcasted their WHO morning show from the phone booth. Constructed in 1963, the phone booth sits at the intersection of Giddings and Grace Streets in downtown Kelley.
Kelley’s Post Office, located one block to the east, was first established in June 1875. Kelley’s population was 300 as of the 2000 census.
A 1950 TIME Magazine article highlighted the sharp population decline in the Union county community of Shannon City. The most recent census numbers revealed a loss of 119 inhabitants from its peak population mark of 288. The owner of the local general store lamented that “none of the kids ever comes back here to live after they’ve gone away to school.” The town newspaper died when the editor died in the 1940s. The foundation from an the old theatre was overgrown with weeds.
Shannon City has continued to decline in population, with a mere 70 residents counted for the 2000 census. The only active building on main street is the part-time post office; a part-time bank up the street closed up years ago, while the only other storefront was without a roof or window and fully overrun by vegetation.
Residents in the Buchanan county community of Stanley were up in arms in May 1995, when they learned their local post office would likely close its doors after over 100 years of operation. The post office, which was losing $23,000 each year, looked to be added to a long list of businesses and organizations that closed shop in Stanley. Its railroad business shut down in the 1940s; closures of local banks, hotels and grocery stores followed.
By 1955, the high school was consolidated, and in 1979, members of the local Methodist Church were forced to travel to nearby Oelwein for services. The post office ultimately stayed open three more years, closing for good in July 1998. Stanley’s 128 residents now retrieve their mail from the metal “cluster boxes” erected next door.
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